Gizzi Erskine’s

Get GIZZI in the kitchen This sumptuous seafood dish from latest residency is made for cosy evenings in

For chef and TV favourite Gizzi Erskine, cooking has always come naturally. ‘It was a bonding thing I did with my mum,’ she says. ‘I love the process of making something delicious and pleasing someone at the end of it.’

Since training at the legendary Leiths School of Food and Wine, Erskine has presented cookery shows for Channel 4 and written seven cookbooks, with an eighth on the way. Recently, she was working on The Nitery, a residency at St Martins Lane hotel inspired by the bohemian restaurants, or ‘niteries’, of early 20th-century Paris (temporarily closed due to the current situation). ‘It was a fairly hedonistic time, with lots of absinthe,’ Erskine laughs.

This decadent recipe was inspired by Dali’s surrealist cookbook and includes a ‘really good, intense, French bouillabaisse stock’. The perfect Saturday-night-in supper, we think you’ll agree. (morganshotelgroup.com)

For the broth

2 tbsps olive oil 1 onion, chopped 2 carrots, chopped

1 fennel, chopped 2 stalks of celery, chopped

1 garlic bulb, cut in half 1 bouquet garni 1 tbsp tomato puree

A splash of brandy 1 tsp saffron 1½ litres fresh chicken stock 400ml dry white wine

1 tsp Worcestershire sauce

4 tomatoes, quartered Squeeze of lemon

For the seafood

and butterflied, heads and shells reserved

1 medium squid, trimmed, wings and tentacles detached, scored A handful of mussels, scrubbed and de-bearded A handful of clams, scrubbed

Sea salt flakes

For the rice

2 onions, finely chopped

1 garlic bulb, finely chopped

300g paella rice 1 tsp smoked paprika

400ml dry white wine

1 tsp celery salt

Parsley to garnish

To make the broth, fry the onions, carrots, fennel, celery, garlic and herbs in olive oil for 20 minutes. Stir in the tomato puree, turn up heat, then add prawn heads and shells. Fry until crisp, then add the brandy and flambé. Blitz saffron with the stock in a food processor, then add to the pan with the wine and Worcestershire sauce. The liquid should cover the shells. Add the tomatoes and simmer for 20 minutes. Sieve the broth from the shells and transfer to a frying pan. Reduce by two thirds and finish with a squeeze of lemon.

Fry the onions and garlic for the rice for 15 minutes in olive oil. Add the rice, paprika, white wine and broth, then cook over a low heat for 20 minutes. Heat the oven to 250C. Spread the seafood over a tray and dress with oil and salt. Roast for 5-10 minutes. Pour any juices into the rice and finish with celery salt. Serve the seafood over the rice, scattered with parsley and olive oil.

From £30, at alicenaylorleyland.com £6.99 (daylesford.com)

Serves 6

THE TABLEWARE Make dinners in as smart as any you’d have out with these whimsical cabbage plates.

THE TREAT Daylesford’s ginger and turmeric honey is a warming, tasty addition to morning toast.